Check out Janggi (Korean Chess), our featured variant for December, 2024.

This page is written by the game's inventor, Ed Pegg Jr..

Follow the King!

Ed Pegg wrote us an email at the end of May describing an idea he had for a chess variant. Here's an excerpt from his email:

The setup, and pieces are as in Orthochess. The Board is a flat plateau atop a high mountain. Falling off the edge means death.

The King controls all his loyal subjects. Any move the King makes, his subjects will make. The king is still blocked by his own pieces, though. The loyal pieces all move immediately after the King has made his move. If a King's move would cause a loyal subject to leap over the edge, it does so. It is advantagous to check an opposing king

Loyal subjects which overrun enemies capture those enemies. Theoretically, up to 15 pieces can be captured on a single move. If a king is adjacent to any enemy piece, the king is in check.

A king may move into check if his loyal subjects will wipe out the threat.

That's all. I'm fairly certain that a K+N can mate a K in this game. I'll have to try to implement this in Zillions.


Written by Ed Pegg Jr (inventor of HighCastle). Ed has a puzzle site at http://www.mathpuzzle.com.
WWW page created: August 19, 1999.